The Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974 (FECA) form the basis of current federal campaign finance law. FECA's main provisions include limits on contributions to federal candidates and political parties, a system for disclosure and voluntary public financing for presidential candidates. FECA originally tried to impose mandatory spending limits on congressional candidates as well as on independent spending, but the US Supreme Court held these spending limits to be unconstitutional in the 1976 landmark case of Buckley v. Valeo. (The Buckley case upheld contribution limits, disclosure and public financing.)

Over the years, FECA's impact was changed both through regulations of the Federal Election Commission and new campaign practices. One result was the growth of "non-federal" financial accounts under the control of the national party committees for which the parties raised "soft money" without contribution limits. In reaction, Congress in 2002 passed a significant amendment to FECA known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) prohibiting soft money contributions to national parties. BCRA also prohibited corporate and labor union funding of "electioneering" communications (which are candidate-specific communications run within sixty days of a general election or thirty days of a primary). (For CFI's detailed summary of BCRA at the time of its passage, see here.)

Like FECA, BCRA has been subject to many interpretive regulations and court challenges. In the most significant such court case so far, the US Supreme Court in January 2010 (Citizens United v. FEC) overturned FECA's and BCRA's prohibitions of corporate and labor union campaign spending.

In April 2014, the Supreme Court's McCutcheon decision struck down overall campaign contribution limits that capped single donor giving at $123,200 to candidates, political party committees and political action committees in each two-year election cycle.

CFI follows these developments with great interest. (Links to the contents of two CFI books analyzing the BCRA's impact appear below.) However, the CFI website is not the best place for a user to find primary source documents for the legal details. Instead, we are happy to provide links to other good websites. There you will find explanations and full texts of the law and regulations, as well as good primary source collections of court cases, legal briefs, and and other supporting documents.

For additional analysis on the effects of BCRA on federal campaign finance see the links on the top right for more on CFI's two books,Election After Reform: Money, Politics and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2006) and Life After Reform - When the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act Meets Politics (2003).